Fatal stabbing case unfolds

Prosecution witnesses say victim was aggressor but credibility in question

Updated 8:11 pm, Thursday, November 8, 2012

Tina Karuzas, 27, of 201 Elm St., Schenectady was charged with first-degree manslaughter Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, after she allegedly stabbed a neighbor during a fight about loud music playing in Karuzas' apartment. (Schenectady Police Department)

SCHENECTADY — Tina Karuzas stabbed her downstairs neighbor, Latoya Ebron, with a knife as the two women fought over loud music from a house party on Elm Street last year, said a prosecution witness in the manslaughter trial.

"All I heard was Latoya running down the stairs, saying, 'She stabbed me, she stabbed me,'" said Makayla Rossetti as she was being questioned Thursday by Assistant District Attorney William Sanderson.

Rossetti told jurors in a Schenectady County courtroom that the murder weapon was the same "Rambo knife" that Karuzas had shown her earlier on Dec. 26 when Rosetti stopped by with friends to drop off DJ equipment for the party.

"She told me that if I had a problem with any females, she would handle it," said Rossetti.

Rossetti said Ebron, 26, was just outside the door to the apartment in a stairwell landing trying to get Karuzas to fight when she pushed Ebron down the stairs.

Ebron got up and tried to pull Karuzas' hair and was stabbed during the fight, Rossetti said. She also told the prosecutor that Karuzas then placed the knife in the bathroom sink and called 911.

Karuzas, who is charged with manslaughter in Ebron's death, contends she stabbed Ebron in self-defense after the woman entered her apartment and attacked her.

On cross-examination by defense attorney Mark Caruso, Rossetti acknowledged that she lied in a sworn statement to a detective to cover up the fact that she had been driving her parent's car because she doesn't have a drivers license.

The defense also pointed out inconsistencies between what Rosetti said on the stand and her grand jury testimony in January, including that Ebron was the aggressor and that Karuzas had asked Ebron to leave at least eight times before the fatal encounter.

"In the statement it says that, but that's not what I said," Rossetti told Caruso. She said she was tired and didn't read through the sworn statement before signing it.

Kyle Fehn, 18, testified next for the prosecution and said Ebron was standing outside Karuzas' apartment telling someone on her cellphone that she was going to beat up Karuzas just before she was stabbed.

Fehn, who recognized Karuzas in the courtroom after Caruso pointed her out to him, often responded with one word or short answers. He also admitted he initially lied when he told a police investigator he was at a store as the stabbing happened and that Karuzas had kicked him out of the party for having alcohol.

On subsequent questioning by the prosecutor, Fehn said he couldn't remember being told to leave the gathering.